Responsiveness Rates of Religion and Life curriculum to Social and Emotional Needs of High School Students

The purpose of this paper was analyzing the content of religious books and revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum in terms of fitting with the social and emotional needs of the learners. In this study, all three religions and life books of high school were considered and by using content analysis, books on two major components of social and emotional needs and 35 sub-components individually for each subject as the unit of analysis were considered. According to the obtained findings, the highest frequency was related to the third-grade textbook of faith and life with 387 cases. Among these, the highest frequency component was in addressing the family and marriage with 20.91% and the lowest component were in education of spirit trust, expression of social relations and etiquette, dealing with marriage and family, explanation of moral corruption and explaining the instinctive needs with 0.258 percent. There were 340 frequencies in the second-grade textbook of religion and life and among them, the highest frequency components was related to explaining the death and resurrection with 20.91% and the lowest frequency was related to explanation of respecting the rights of others and explaining the need for religion and the divine messages with about 0.227%. The third-grade textbook was addressed social and emotional needs more than the other books, but in general, all of the books were addressing the social and emotional needs at a lower level. Therefore, it is necessary to revise the textbooks to meet the social and emotional needs.